256 EPOCHS IN THE HISTORY OF THE CONTEMPLATION OP 



nent ; from whence the navigation to the Moon Island (the 

 Magastar of Polo), to Zanzibar, and to Sofala rich in gold, 

 would be found extremely easy. Long before these tidings 

 reached Lisbon, however, it had been known there that 

 Bartholomew Diaz had not only discovered the Cape of Good 

 Hope (Cabo Tormentoso), but had already sailed round it, 

 though only for a very short distance. ( 397 ) Accounts of 

 the Indian and Arabian trading stations on the eastern coast 

 of Africa, and of the configuration of the southern extremity 

 of the continent, may, indeed, have reached Venice very early 

 in the middle ages, through Egypt, Abyssinia, and Arabia. 

 The triangular form of Africa is distinctly laid down in the 

 planisphere of Sanuto ( 398 ) as early as 1306; in the Genoese 

 Portulano della Mediceo-Laurenziana of 1351 discovered 

 by Count Baldelli ; and in the map of the world by Fra 

 Mauro. It is fitting that the history of the contemplation 

 of the Universe should indicate by a passing allusion the 

 epochs when the general form of the great continental 

 masses was first recognised. 



Whilst the gradually advancing knowledge of geographical 

 relations led men to think of new and shorter maritime 

 routes, the means of improving practical navigation by the 

 application of mathematics and astronomy, by the invention 

 of new measuring instruments, and by the more skilful use 

 of the magnetic forces, were also rapidly increasing. It is 

 highly probable that Europe owes the adaptation of the 

 directing powers of the magnet to the purposes of navigation 

 or the use of the mariner's compass to the Arabians, and 

 that they again were indebted for it to the Chinese. In a 

 Chinese work, (the historic Szuki of Szumathsian, a writer 

 belonging to the first half of the second century before our 



